46 THE NEW BIOLOGY 



foundation of a new ichthyology, which would convert 

 the descriptions of Pliny and iElian into mere historical 

 curiosities. He discriminates and names such true fishes 

 as were known to him, and often describes in succession 

 several species which are now placed in the same genus 

 or the same family, such as the " brames de mer " (sea- 

 breams), or the different kinds of Turdus, Kaia, and 

 Galeus. The invention of the genus was ascribed by 

 Haller and Linnaeus to Gesner, but it is probably as old 

 as natural history. Aristotle enumerates two or more 

 camels, eagles, kingfishers, tits, woodpeckers, wagtails, 

 thrushes, &c. What is modern is the use of the word 

 genus as a technical term, and the reference of every 

 species to its genus, verbal usages which came in 

 gradually, and were at length formally inculcated by 

 Linnaeus. Eondelet indicates groups more extensive 

 than genera, but without subordination or definition. 

 There are no synoptical tables, and the groups are mere 

 headings. Like other naturalists of that age, he was 

 content to reckon the whales as fishes, though he was 

 well aware of the difierences between them. He 

 regularly noted the structure and arrangement of the 

 gills in every true fish that came before him. 



In these two books nearly two hundred and fifty 

 species are described, most of them being figured, and 

 there is rarely a doubt as to the fish which is meant. 

 The modern names are regularly assigned to his figures 

 in the British Museum Catalogue of Fishes (1859-70). 



Eondelet was of great use to Willughby and Ray 

 {infra, p. 112) and through them to later ichthyologists. 

 The task upon which all were engaged proved to be 

 one of unsuspected difficulty. Though Ray, Linnaeus, 

 Cuvier and other zoologists, the strongest of their time, 

 laboured at it, the end has never come in view. It 



I 



